By Satyaki Chakraborty
Sweden’s opposition left coalition won a narrow victory in national elections after the final figures were announced on Thursday. The Left coalition got 176 seats as against the ruling right wing’s 173 seats. The parliament has 349 seats. So the left coalition is now in a position to form the new government.
Shortly after the final results were announced, right-wing Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said he would resign as the head of government in a letter to the parliament’s speaker posted on social media. Former prime minister Magdalena Andersson’s Social Democrats finished as the biggest single party with 99 seats, despite losing eight seats compared with the last election in 2022.
Kristersson has led Sweden with a three-party, right-wing coalition. The parliamentary majority relied on outside support from the far-right Sweden Democrats. Kristersson had held out the prospect of cabinet seats for the Sweden Democrats this time, if the governing coalition won. But the election was a major setback for the Sweden Democrats, who dropped into third place behind the outgoing prime minister’s Moderates and took 62 seats, 11 fewer than four years ago.
The Sweden election results have come as a big relief to the Left in Europe. Only recently, the right wing AFD made big gains in state elections in Germany and is knocking at the doors of power. Though all other parties including the moderate right have been opposing the AFD participation and Chancellor Frederick Merz has expressed his determination to prevent the AFD from occupying power in any state government, the fact remains that AFD has been gaining popular support while the moderates including the right are losing voters.
Another big European country is going for presidential elections in 2027. President Emanuel Macron is not contesting. He will up other candidate for presidential polls. The far right National Party of Le Pen is determined to get its candidate elected to the high office. Similarly, the Left coalition is also preparing to get their candidate as the front runner in the first phase of the polls. The election campaign is picking up in France for the 2027 polls.
In this milieu, Swedish election results have come as a big boost for the left in Europe. (IPA Service)
